COUDERSPORT — Bob Tingley’s impact on Coudersport basketball spanned far beyond the three years he spent as head coach of the Lady Falcons.
Upon his retirement from coaching after the 2020-21 season, Tingley had become, in many ways, the patriarch of a proud, perennially successful program.
Tingley passed away at age 73 on Dec. 13. For his coaching peers, dozens of former players and countless community members that he influenced while serving his alma mater, however, he will long be remembered as one of Potter County’s sharpest basketball minds.
Tingley graduated from Coudersport in 1966, the same year he was named Most Valuable Player of the North Tier League. He averaged 17 points per game for the Falcons that year, later playing collegiately in the former Eastern League.
Tingley was a land surveyor by trade and an outdoorsman at heart, often finding time to fish while he wasn’t operating his self-owned surveying business. His other love, however, was basketball — and he spent years putting that passion to practice at Coudersport.
Tingley began coaching at Coudy as an assistant to the boys team under Doug Hensel. The program thrived under that duo, producing one successful team after another in the late 1990s and into the 2000s.
After a brief hiatus, Tingley returned to coaching, this time as an assistant to Chris Fink and the girls program. He and Fink coached together for nearly a decade before the latter stepped down, and after assisting Brian Green for a season, Tingley took over as head coach of the Coudy girls ahead of the 2018-19 season.
What followed were two of the most impressive playoff runs in the program’s storied history.
“(Tingley) just did a great job with those teams,” Fink said. “I think it goes back to his patience. There were times during both of those years that maybe the girls had a rough game throughout the season, where you thought they wouldn’t have had a chance to make the deep playoff run that they did both years.”
Tingley’s numbers as head coach speak for themselves — in three years, his Coudy girls went 62-12 overall, including a 40-2 mark in North Tier play. The Lady Falcons finished third in District 9 in Tingley’s first season before embarking on back-to-back district championship runs, each of which took them to the PIAA state quarterfinals.
“I think the girls were really fond of him,” Fink said. “Kind of a grandfather figure to a lot of them, and some of the girls’ parents even relayed that to me.”
The 2019-20 season saw Tingley’s Lady Falcons finish 23-4 overall, running through the North Tier with a perfect 16-0 mark. A triumph over North Clarion in the D9 Class A title game preceded state playoff victories over Avella and Blacklick Valley, setting up Coudy for a state quarterfinal date with Kennedy Catholic.
That game never happened, however, as the onset of the coronavirus halted interscholastic athletic competition in mid-March of that year.
“They felt good about that game,” Fink said. “(Tingley) did something that not a lot of coaches do and that is, particularly the second half of the year, he backed off on the practice time. I think that was something that really allowed those girls to be more fresh and, in a way, become more hungry come playoff time.”
Tingley’s tactics proved canny the following season, when Coudy returned to the state quarters. There, a one-point loss to eventual state champion Bishop Guilfoyle ended a 20-2 season.
“He was just a real steady influence,” Fink said. “Even when he was dealing with health issues for the last four or five years, he did everything he could to be there and felt it was important for the girls to see him there.”
Tingley’s decreasing health became a concern to those around him, but the 2021 Big 30 Coach of the Year didn’t allow it to impact his dedication to his program. Excuses, Tingley’s peers remember, were not in his vocabulary.
“He never once complained about being sick and never once elaborated on what it was — it wasn’t our business and we didn’t ask,” said Troy Stimaker, who served as an assistant to Tingley through each of the latter’s three years at the helm. “Even though you could tell he was going through some hard times, he never once complained about it or made an excuse about it. That’s the way that Bob was — tough as nails.The kids saw that and they played that way, too.”
If Tingley had to miss a game to attend an appointment or treatment, he’d be dialing the phone by the contest’s end, seeking details on how it went. His patience, commitment and love for the game were evident in and out of season.
“When Bob wasn’t coaching basketball, he was thinking about basketball,” Stimaker said. “He was watching basketball. He was developing practice plans. He put a ton of thought and a ton of passion into the program.”
Tigley’s compassion rubbed off on his players.
“The girls wanted to win for him,” Fink said. “They really appreciated his approach to the game and to life, because part of that patience was that it was just a game. I’m sure that winning was extremely important to him, but he portrayed to the girls that if you go out and try to execute the best you can, that’s all we can ask for. There are going to be some games where you don’t come out on top, and that’s important for the kids to hear.”
Commanding, yet welcoming. Complex in preparation, yet simple in practice. From overseeing his daughters’ pick-up games at Coudersport Area Recreational Park to orchestrating state playoff runs decades later, Tingley exuded basketball knowledge wherever he went.
“You’d hear stories about how tough he was, and that’s something he brought along to his players,” said Joe Bunnell, who succeeded Tingley as head coach after serving as a volunteer assistant last year. “Every day in practice, he’d talk about a college or NBA game that he’d watched the night before, or a game that he was going to watch later that night. Basketball was a huge part of his life.”
Tingley’s ability to connect with players pushed many of them to return years later, visit and reminisce about their time in uniform. Tingley remained involved with the program for as long as his health would allow, checking in on open gym sessions as the team prepared for the current season.
“His dedication to not only the program, but to the kids individually, too,” Stimaker said. “Not only making them better basketball players, but teaching them life lessons. There was nothing really complex about what we did, but we did everything meticulously and paid attention to detail with everything we did. That was a big reason why we were as successful as we were.”
Tingley remained engaged with every level of Coudy hoops. He’d watch youth and junior high games intently, Bunnell recalled, scouting young talent that would soon make its way up the Coudy pipeline.
His commitment and positive influence on the community’s youth, Fink recalled, is rare to find.
“I’m going to try to use his tactics and see how they work for our staff and the kids that we have,” Bunnell said. “He was a fighter through and through — that’s the kind of toughness we want to keep in the program.”
